If you currently have any gray hair, if you dye your hair vote YES (even if you just dye to have a color you prefer and NOT with the specific intention of concealing the gray).If you currently have any gray hair and do not dye it, vote NO.But if you have just a little gray and don't dye now but plan to when you get more gray, vote YES.

For those too young to have gray hair (even if you currently dye your hair to a color you prefer), if you plan to dye it when you finally get gray hair vote YES, and if you plan to just leave the gray hair alone vote NO.

(Yes I realize people vary and some never get gray hair or get it at a very young age, or are even born with a hair shade that looks pure white. They may answer as they wish.)

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. - Carl Jung

Haha. I just spent a full year (so far) going from dyed dark brown to natural but tinted blonde/grey hair. I don't like having light blonde hair, I'd prefer being brunette, but I no longer have roots. I'm almost finished, just a couple of inches left and then technically I don't even have to tint it. It is very freeing in a lot of ways.

Weird thing though. I went to my eye doc recently and she and her assistant were all snooty with "Oh, you dyed your hair!". Sneering sort of because it looks like I'm blonde now. When I told them I just went grey instead, they were almost apologetic. I don't know what's up with that.

Premature grey runs in our family. Looks like at this point my brother has the gene and I don't, but if I do get more gray I am going to roll with it (but I reserve the right to change my mind!!) My mom dyed her hair for years and I can't imagine that it's good for you to do it for so long. I colored my hair in my 20's for fun, but in my 30's I pretty much stopped.

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"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain

I have lots of gray and don't, and won't, dye it.I think generally men care less about having gray hair.

I can't even walk into a beauty salon without choking on the chemical fumes. (Is that hair dye or the perm chemicals?)It can't be good for your hair or your skin or the lungs of the poor employees.

Dying away the gray certainly does make people look younger though.Many if not most people want to look younger.But when the roots start to show through it looks heinous IMHO.That means you'd have to dye it often to keep appearances up.How often is this? Weekly? Every two weeks? Monthly?Doesn't that get expensive?

Last edited by kenny on April 2nd, 2012, 3:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. - Carl Jung

I have this mobile patch on my head that sprouts little groups of five, ten grey hairs. It always stays on *top* of my head so I can never be sure that I've yanked everything without having DH help... Once it's cleared odds are good that the hair there will grow back black, and the patch migrates.

DH has decreed that he will no longer help me yank my grey hairs. He says I should just let my hair grow whatever colour it wants and stop stressing... if I let them grow out I'd look like a skunk. So, um, no.

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.~H.D.Thoreau

I have some grey hair, and I imagine there will be more to come. I don't and won't dye it.

My own logic here is that I don't like salon trips, don't like people touching me or fussing around me and I don't like anything that needs maintenance, so hair dye is probably not for me. Beyond that, I don't think I'd be fooling anyone. I'm ageing, and some or all of my hair will go grey as part of that process. I'm fine with it, and don't want to pretend it isn't happening.

I can't even walk into a beauty salon without choking on the chemical fumes. (Is that hair dye or the perm chemicals?)It can't be good for your hair or your skin or the lungs of the poor employees.

Dying away the gray certainly does make people look younger though.Many if not most people want to look younger.But when the roots start to show through it looks heinous IMHO.That means you'd have to dye it often to keep appearances up.How often is this? Weekly? Every two weeks? Monthly?Doesn't that get expensive?

I don't agree with the bold part at all. I think it makes people look like whatever age they are, with hair dye.

I'm in my early 20s and have 5 or so gray hairs. Seems to be a slow progression, but if this is a trend, I intend to dye them. I'd rather not be gray in my 30s. But that's just the vain 20-something in me talking. My fiance has some salt and pepper going on. We both like it! Funny how gendered it is.

My own logic here is that I don't like salon trips, don't like people touching me or fussing around me and I don't like anything that needs maintenance, so hair dye is probably not for me. Beyond that, I don't think I'd be fooling anyone. I'm ageing, and some or all of my hair will go grey as part of that process. I'm fine with it, and don't want to pretend it isn't happening.

Same here. The only reason I'd consider ever dying it is if there's credible evidence that it's hurting me professionally, and even then I would be very resentful about doing it. In the meantime, I don't have grey hairs, I just have free highlights.

I am very lucky, I will be 53 this month and I dont have a single gray hair yet! (Honestly!!!) But when I do, YES I will cover it. I am naturally strawberry blonde. (This is the only good gene in my entire body so dont be jealous)

"Time is not what you think. Dying? Not the end of everything. We think it is. But what happens on earth is only the beginning." -Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven

I can't even walk into a beauty salon without choking on the chemical fumes. (Is that hair dye or the perm chemicals?)It can't be good for your hair or your skin or the lungs of the poor employees.

Dying away the gray certainly does make people look younger though.Many if not most people want to look younger.But when the roots start to show through it looks heinous IMHO.That means you'd have to dye it often to keep appearances up.How often is this? Weekly? Every two weeks? Monthly?Doesn't that get expensive?

I don't agree with the bold part at all. I think it makes people look like whatever age they are, with hair dye.

There are exceptions, like the 85 year old guy I know with jet-black hair.I mean, Come ON dude! To each his own. But yeah the skin is another indicator of age.

But wrinkles and gray hair are natural results of aging.The older we get the closer we are to the end of our ride here on earth.Dying sucks and I can totally understand people wanting to look like they have 40 years left, not 20.I like to think I accept my age but, sure, I'd love to be/look younger but I guess not enough to go through the hassle and expense of dying my hair/lipo/botox etc.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. - Carl Jung

I'm 24 and have already 20-30 grays around the crown/top of my head. There might be more in the back/nape area, but I am not aware of them. When I first started sprouting more (I went from having only these darn 4 to having a whole bunch of randoms in just what seems like a few weeks!), I decided that I'd finally take advantage and get the blonde highlights I'd been pining for. The whites just blended in with the hilights, even though they were sort of still obvious after the roots grew to be longer. I just recently went back to a dark brown, after my hair was falling out in chunks from the damage. I don't really have "a lot" of whites/grays, but since they're not all in one location, it looks straggly. I think I'll just continue plucking them out if they're near my bangs and middle part section until I sprout more. Then I'll start coloring them.

Kenny, FWIW, I honestly feel men are SEXIER when they're salt-and-pepper or all gray even. Must be the Clooney-effect. A tan and gray hair? MMmmmMmm.

Diamonds are held under tons and tons of pressure, extremely high temperatures of fire and shuffled under shifting of tectonic plates, for a long, long time! Yet when they come out from there and are put on display for their beauty; does anybody stop to evaluate the diamond based upon all the shit it's been through and say "Remember that disgusting hole it used to be in? I bet it was hell in there!" No, people don't remember where a diamond has come from; they just see the beauty of it now. But it wouldn't have become so beautiful, you know, if not for all of that! So why should we look at other people, or at ourselves and evaluate them/ourselves based upon their/our pasts? Shouldn't we forget that? And only see the beauty that is in front of our eyes? Whatever it was, it made you beautiful! And that is what matters! - C. Joybell C.

But when the roots start to show through it looks heinous IMHO.That means you'd have to dye it often to keep appearances up.How often is this? Weekly? Every two weeks? Monthly?Doesn't that get expensive?

HAHA, OMY, I just pictured my old Mandarin teacher from HS. She had a SKUNK STRIPE down her middle part from not dying her roots for a year!

My old coworker used to dye her hair once every 3 months at the salon, but buy those Root Touch-Up dye kits at the pharmacy to just dye the roots in her parting area. She didn't want to damage the hair with chemicals if it wasn't going to show anyway. And she was a silver fox under all those layers! She showed me a different part than her usual, and it was almost all silver!

What I would be worried about is, after all those years of dying, what if you wanted to go au naturale? Do you have to 'tough it out' and look like you have an expanding skunk stripe for a few years, and then cut it short when it grows out (females, obviously)? Or would you be able to use OOPS! to remove the dye, and automatically be a silver fox?

Diamonds are held under tons and tons of pressure, extremely high temperatures of fire and shuffled under shifting of tectonic plates, for a long, long time! Yet when they come out from there and are put on display for their beauty; does anybody stop to evaluate the diamond based upon all the shit it's been through and say "Remember that disgusting hole it used to be in? I bet it was hell in there!" No, people don't remember where a diamond has come from; they just see the beauty of it now. But it wouldn't have become so beautiful, you know, if not for all of that! So why should we look at other people, or at ourselves and evaluate them/ourselves based upon their/our pasts? Shouldn't we forget that? And only see the beauty that is in front of our eyes? Whatever it was, it made you beautiful! And that is what matters! - C. Joybell C.

I can't even walk into a beauty salon without choking on the chemical fumes. (Is that hair dye or the perm chemicals?)It can't be good for your hair or your skin or the lungs of the poor employees.

Dying away the gray certainly does make people look younger though.Many if not most people want to look younger.But when the roots start to show through it looks heinous IMHO.That means you'd have to dye it often to keep appearances up.How often is this? Weekly? Every two weeks? Monthly?Doesn't that get expensive?

I don't agree with the bold part at all. I think it makes people look like whatever age they are, with hair dye.

There are exceptions, like the 85 year old guy I know with jet-black hair.I mean, Come ON dude! To each his own. But yeah the skin is another indicator of age.

But wrinkles and gray hair are natural results of aging.The older we get the closer we are to the end of our ride here on earth.Dying sucks and I can totally understand people wanting to look like they have 40 years left, not 20.I like to think I accept my age but, sure, I'd love to be/look younger but I guess not enough to go through the hassle and expense of dying my hair/lipo/botox etc.

I'm laughing, because I can picture him....but actually, DH's father died aged 84, and he had the same thick dark hair he always had. One or two greys around the temples, but nearly all black hair, and no, he never used dye. Good genes, is all. I think my husband will be the same. Plus, he's older than me, so we'll probably look like the punchline of a joke in a few more years.

Curious, why do you want to look younger? I've always looked young for my age, and I can't say I'm sorry to see a few lines and grey hairs appearing. I am always the youngest person in any meeting at work, always the youngest speaker at a conference etc and it doesn't always help. I'm not excited to rush towards death or anything, but well, life seems to get better and easier as I get older.

I have always colored my hair because my natural shade is a mousy flat brown. I color it a similar shade, just golden to get the ashiness out. I have been told by my family I will get the streaks at my temples. I have yet to see that, but I did find my first gray hair recently right above my ear.

I currently color and think I will continue to as I get more gray until it all turns. I have seen women with beautiful gray hair. Once it is all gray I will embrace it

My own logic here is that I don't like salon trips, don't like people touching me or fussing around me and I don't like anything that needs maintenance, so hair dye is probably not for me. Beyond that, I don't think I'd be fooling anyone. I'm ageing, and some or all of my hair will go grey as part of that process. I'm fine with it, and don't want to pretend it isn't happening.

Same here. The only reason I'd consider ever dying it is if there's credible evidence that it's hurting me professionally, and even then I would be very resentful about doing it. In the meantime, I don't have grey hairs, I just have free highlights.

I'd think about a different profession at that point, I suspect. Can you imagine having to go to all that hassle? Having the roots touched up after every meal, having to worry about shade numbers and tones and ....(all the stuff that you have to worry about with hair treatments, that I don't even know enough about to be properly afraid of....)

Written by kenny:I have lots of gray and don't, and won't, dye it.I think generally men care less about having gray hair.

I can't even walk into a beauty salon without choking on the chemical fumes. (Is that hair dye or the perm chemicals?)It can't be good for your hair or your skin or the lungs of the poor employees.

Dying away the gray certainly does make people look younger though.Many if not most people want to look younger.But when the roots start to show through it looks heinous IMHO.That means you'd have to dye it often to keep appearances up.How often is this? Weekly? Every two weeks? Monthly?Doesn't that get expensive?

Usually those really noxious fumes are from bleach (to turn brunettes into blondes) and ammonia for perms. At least that's my understanding.

I dye my hair every month (when the roots start to show) at home. All those boxes in the haircolor aisle aren't there for decoration.

In it's natural state, I have VERY dark brown hair with grey temples and scattered grey strands on top. I dye it mostly so that I have a lighter brownish/reddish color that I think looks a little better. It's pretty cheap to dye, about $6-$10 a box, and it takes about 20 minutes. I use a formula that doesn't have much bleach, so it's not too nasty.

I definitely want to look younger, so I battle the gray and the wrinkles.

I have had grey hairs since I was 10,something to do with thyroid. I have colored my hair though just since 1995, after chemo it came in very salt and pepper and I really felt too young(38) to sport that look. I have gone pretty light, almost blonde, darker brown with chunky blonde and one crazy time red with almost purple hughlights! it is now medium brown with blonde highlights. If I did not color it I would be 100 % grey and I still think I'm too young for that. I have an aunt ( just 65) who has 100% grey in one of those pixie cuts and she looks fabulous!

Written by kenny:I have lots of gray and don't, and won't, dye it.I think generally men care less about having gray hair.

I can't even walk into a beauty salon without choking on the chemical fumes. (Is that hair dye or the perm chemicals?)It can't be good for your hair or your skin or the lungs of the poor employees.

Dying away the gray certainly does make people look younger though.Many if not most people want to look younger.But when the roots start to show through it looks heinous IMHO.That means you'd have to dye it often to keep appearances up.How often is this? Weekly? Every two weeks? Monthly?Doesn't that get expensive?

Usually those really noxious fumes are from bleach (to turn brunettes into blondes) and ammonia for perms. At least that's my understanding.

I dye my hair every month (when the roots start to show) at home. All those boxes in the haircolor aisle aren't there for decoration.

In it's natural state, I have VERY dark brown hair with grey temples and scattered grey strands on top. I dye it mostly so that I have a lighter brownish/reddish color that I think looks a little better. It's pretty cheap to dye, about $6-$10 a box, and it takes about 20 minutes. I use a formula that doesn't have much bleach, so it's not too nasty.

I definitely want to look younger, so I battle the gray and the wrinkles.

$6 once a month, and it only takes 20 minutes? Hmmmmmmmm. And, yeah now that you mention it the fume that makes me gag is probably ammonia.

Last edited by kenny on April 2nd, 2012, 4:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. - Carl Jung

I've been dying mine for a while. My natural color is very dark brown, almost black...and it's just way too dark for my complexion. I've got yellow based skin (rather than pink) and tan really well, but I also lose my tan at a ridiculously fast rate. A few days on vacation = tan, a week back at work = white.

Anyway, I usually dye it a medium brown color. I haven't dyed it since right before my wedding (and right before getting pregnant), back in November. Now the grays are starting to show up, especially with the contrast of my super dark brown roots. I don't have a ton of them, maybe 5-10, but they are right in my part line where you can see them (and probably elsewhere as well, but this is where I notice them). I bought some ammonia-free dye and keep meaning to use it, but haven't gotten around to it.

I did color it for years. Last year I grew it out and it's actually a very nice silver color, so I stopped. I like not spending time or money on it. And DH prefers to any of the 300 other colors I've tried. lol

The hardest part is finding a color you like. If it helps, the color on the top of the box is usually the closest color to real life. When you're in the store, it's easiest to pick one if you hold the box up to your face in front of a mirror. (I know, just try to go when it's not crowded). You can hold it up to the inside of your wrist, but that's not as accurate. Some places have little hair swatches in the color aisle, but I never found them to be very accurate to the final result.

Bring the dye home. Snip a few strands of hair (tie them together with string) and dye just the strands. Once it's dry, hold that up to your face. See if you like it. Once you find a color that you like, hold on to the box top like grim death. This will lead you back to your color even though they change the packaging every 10 minutes.

If you hate the color, there's not a lot to be done about it. Better too light than too dark. if it's too light, you can go over it with another dye, but if it's too dark, the dye removers don't work well (think Bozo red) and you'll have to just cut it off. I dyed my DH's hair really dark once, and he looked like Edward Scissorhands.

He had to use a trimmer and he buzzed it down to about 1/4 tall, and that ended up being his preferred hair cut for years. So, you see, I really did him a hair styling favor.

I started getting grays at 24/25. So, yep, I dye them suckers. I'm now 40 but get told how young I look. If I had a head full of grays that would not happen. I saw a picture in a magazine of a 42 year old woman with all gray hair. She was pretty, dressed nice, just all gray. I showed that picture to anyone I could, asking them to guess her age. She didn't have wrinkles. Not a single person guessed anywhere close to her age, no one guess even less than 50+. Gray hair makes you look older than you are. No matter how pretty you are, no matter what a cute hair style you have.

Is it a lot of work...sure is. But so is shaving, plucking, grooming, etc. So worth it though.